Jean-Pierre Vidal

Jean-Pierre Vidal is a French alpine skier. As a young skier, he focused mainly on downhill. After hurting his knee, however, he decided to go for slalom. In 2002, he had his best year, winning a gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics and taking a World Cup win in Kranjska Gora. A song was called after him and in the French ski resort Les Sybelles, a lift was named after his gold medal as well . After this fantastic year, it took Vidal until 2006 to return to the highest level of skiing competition. In January 2006, he won a World Cup race in Kitzbühel. Barely a month later, on February 24, 2006, he broke his forearm during a training session in Turin. He then decided to stop his professional career. At this time, the 2006 Winter Olympics were not over yet.